Louis Vuitton X De Bethune: The LVDB-03 GMT ‘Louis Varius’ GMT And Sympathique Clock
“A jewel of misplaced ingenuity.” George Daniels, ‘The Art of Breguet,’ describing the Sympathique.
Under the leadership of Jean Arnault, and with the technical and design capabilities of Louis Vuitton’s manufacture, La Fabrique du Temps, Louis Vuitton has in the past released two collaborations with highly respected independents. The first, released in 2023, was a collaboration with Rexhep Rexhepi: the Akrivia X Louis Vuitton LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie, which is a very unusual five minute tourbillon with chronograph, which chimes once per minute while the chronograph is running. The second, which debuted in March of 2025, was the LVKV-02 GMR 6 Voutilainen X Louis Vuitton. The LVKV-02 GMR 6, is a GMT or two time-zone watch, based on the Voutilainen GMT 6, in which home time is shown on a 24 hour subdial, with an hour hand that can be set in one-hour increments via the crown, which acts as a pusher as well. The GMT 6 as well as the LVKV-02 GMR 6 use Kari Voutilainen’s version of Breguet’s double escape wheel, “natural escapement” or échappement naturel.
The third collaboration, announced today, is with De Bethune, which of course, means it’s a collaboration with Denis Flageollet, one of the co-founders of the brand, and one of modern watchmaking’s most restlessly inventive watchmakers. Flageollet’s work has been informed by his background both in watchmaking, and in micro-mechanical engineering (Jean Arnault has studied engineering as well; the youngest son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault has a master’s degree from MIT in financial mathematics, and another from the Imperial College, London, in mechanical engineering, which is as good an academic background as you can have for a career in the watch industry).
The collaboration has produced the The LVDB-03 GMT ‘Louis Varius’ GMT, which in simplest terms is a De Bethune DB25 Starry Varius GMT in a redesigned Tambour-style case. However, there is both more to the watch itself, and to the other half of the collaboration – the watch is part of a larger ensemble, which includes a very large, 10 kilogram (more or less) Sympathique clock.
Ten of the Louis Varius watches will be produced, with an announced price of €350,000. Two additional watches are being produced, which are designed to pair with something really unusual: a “sympathique” clock, which winds the watches and adjusts them to tell the correct time as it is measured by the clock. Sympathique clocks were originally invented by Breguet and since his time, very few of any kind have been constructed thanks to the cost and complexity associated with making them.
The clock is designed to be reminiscent of boxed marine chronometers, although of course it’s intended to remain stationary (still, at the asking price, there is a non-zero chance that if you own this you have a yacht to put it on).
Time on the clock is read off peripheral hour and minute hands and the body of the clock is titanium – it’s physically impressive, at 310 mm in width, 266 mm in depth, and 260 mm in height. The gimbals are functional and, tilted to the maximum deflection from the horizontal, the height is 310mm. The clock is keywound and set, with an 11 day power reserve, and has a lever escapement and remontoir (constant force mechanism).
It’s elaborately decorated but it manages to be so without becoming too Rococo for its own good – I think another company might have been tempted to add engraving or other ornamentation to the gimbal system, which I think looks pleasingly architecturally clean; a fine and fairly rare example of knowing when to stop. The ring on the base is meteorite, heat-tempered blue at De Bethune, and the hemisphere inside the gimbals contains the clock proper, as well as the cradle for the watch, which is located under the central dome. The dome, as well as the ring of engraved travel scenes around the periphery of the hemisphere, are 5N rose gold, and are decorated with engravings by the engraver, Michéle Rothan (you can see her, and some of her work, in this video from Watches & Wonders 2017).
The engravings are based on drawings by the Belgian artist and graphic novel illustrator, François Schuiten, who is best known for the series, “The Obscure Cities,” which show stories that take place in imaginary, science-fiction cities with architecture and landscapes partly informed by conventional scifi tropes, but also by elements of steampunk and other alternative history genres. The scenes Shuiten produced for this project draw on an idealized vision of 19th century travel, in keeping Louis Vuitton’s history and the overall theme of the project, which is centered around a GMT complication.
The watch as is usually the case with LV collaborations, a very well thought out synthesis; it combines both De Bethune design and technical features, and styling features from the Louis Vuitton watch design vocabulary (and indeed, Louis Vuitton’s larger design vocabulary as well; the design elements of LV trunks are reproduced in many of the company’s watch designs).
The engraving on the dome over the cradle for the watch depicts the constellation Hercules, surrounded by depictions of the constellations around it in the night sky (you can see Lyra, the Lyre, and Serpens Caput, the head of the Serpent, in the picture). Louis Vuitton says that the constellation Hercules was chosen for its relationship to “the astrological sign of Louis Vuitton’s founder,” and if you look up Louis Vuitton’s birthday, you will find that he was born on August 4th, 1821, when the Sun was in Leo. The constellation was described by ancient Greek astronomers as showing Hercules holding the skin of the Nemean Lion, a legendary beast whose golden hide was said to be impervious to weapons. One of the Twelve Labors of Hercules was the defeat of the lion, which Hercules is supposed to have strangled. Just to the right of Hercules, you can see Orion and the head of one of his dogs, sitting more or less right where he should be, on the Celestial Equator.
The central dome is surrounded by a large, very wide and quite striking ring of heat-blued titanium. The ring, which represents the night sky, is decorated with stars in gold leaf, which represent the Milky Way. If you ever happen to visit L’Auberson, where De Bethune is located, and you are lucky enough to stay overnight and it’s clear, you will see the Milky Way in all the spectacular clarity it had for ancient astronomers – L’Auberson is out in the middle of nowhere in the Jura, and it gets dark there at night and I mean dark.
The subject of the night sky brings us back to the watch itself, and it’s interesting to compare the regular production DB25 Starry Varius GMT with the Louis Varius.
Two things immediately jump out at you when comparing the two watches – the first is the size. The standard DB25 SV GMT is 42mm x 11.8mm, which is a bit larger than a classic dress watch diameter of 37mm-39mm, but the larger diameter is an intrinsic part of the design, which has a 24 hour hand that doubles as a day/night indicator. The day/night indicator is essentially the same two-color, blued-steel-and-gold sphere De Bethune uses for its spherical moonphase, although in the latter case, the lighter hemisphere is in palladium. The sphere runs in a cut-out track set into the dial, going around once per day. The Louis Varius, on the other hand, is a noticeably larger watch, at 45mm x 14.05mm but there is a very good reason for the extra millimeters, which we’ll get to in a minute.
The second obvious difference is in the lugs. The lugs on the standard DB25 SV GMT are De Bethune’s signature ogive tipped, open lugs, whose graceful shape is a good match for the biomorphic, rounded lines of the DB25 SV GMT case shape. The Louis Varius lugs, on the other hand, are both a different design and a different material. In keeping with the more substantial case, the Louis Varius lugs are heavier both visually and physically – they’re made of platinum, although they are hollowed out along their flanks, which connects them in design with the original DB25 SV GMT lugs.
There are other clear differences as well. The case is a Tambour-style case (the Tambour collection at Louis Vuitton, as the name implies, have drum-shaped cases which are widest at the back and narrow at the bezel) and the case and bezel in the Louis Varius are both in heat-blued titanium; the wide base of Tambour cases generally makes them a good match for larger and complicated watches, as the widest part of the case is closest to the wrist.
The Louis Varius is the third collaboration with an independent from LV but it’s also the third example of how well these collaborations have done so far in being real collaborations – the design, which incorporates Louis Vuitton’s typeface, as well as the Tambour case shape, also feels seamlessly part of De Bethune’s design language and history as well, which is I think at least partly because on both sides, there was a lot to work with. Two very distinctive and easily recognizable design languages have in this case resulted in a watch with an identity that speaks to both brands equally, while creating something new from its synthesis.
Now, twelve of the Louis Varius watches are going to be made in total, but two of them – just two – are being sold with the sympathique clock, whose official name is the LVDB-03 Sympathique Louis Varius.
Sympathique clock-watch pairs are quite rare – Breguet himself, and his workshop, only made a small number of them. Exactly how many is not known, although earlier this year, a Sympathique commissioned by Breguet in 1990 and which was made at Technique Horlogère Appliquée, was sold at auction by Phillips for over CHF 5 million (the clock was Breguet Pendule Sympathique No. 1) and in the catalog notes, Phillips lists 11 known Sympathique clocks from Breguet’s workshop:
N° 46: year of manufacture unknown, sold to the Spanish Crown (sets hands and adjusts)
N°423 delivered in 1809 to the Russian Crown (sets hands and adjusts)
N° 757 delivered in 1810 to the Russian Crown (sets hands and adjusts)
N° 758 delivered in 1812 to French governments (gift for Sultan Mahmut II) (sets hands and adjusts)
N° 5 work started in 1812 but delivery date and owner unknown (sets hands and winds)
N° 666 delivered in 1814 to the English Prince Regent (sets hands and adjusts)
N° 247 delivered on 1814 to the Spanish Crown (sets hands and adjusts)
N° 430 delivered in 1830 to Prince Anatole Demidoff purchased for Tsar Nicolas 1 (sets hands and adjusts)
N° 128 delivered in 1836 to the Duc of Orleans ((sets hands, adjusts and winds), this clock was offered in 1999 at the Sotheby’s Masterpieces from the Time Musem selling for $5,777,500, making it the most expensive clock at the time and still the most expensive Breguet ever sold
N° 257 delivered in 1845 to Mr Baring (sets hands and adjusts)
N° 222 delivered in 1875 to Grand Duke Konstantin of Russia (sets hands and adjusts)
Pendule Sympathique No. 1 differs from early Sympathique clock-watch pairs, in that the watch paired with the clock is a wristwatch – a wristwatch tourbillon, based on a Lemania movement. The watch has a quick release system for the strap, allowing it to be more easily placed into the carrier on the clock itself, and the clock has an eight day power reserve (Breguet’s Sympathiques, listed above, had to be wound daily). The clock has a detent escapement with remontoir, and it both winds and sets the watch (it does not adjust the rate, which was a feature of some of Breguet’s Sympathiques, although only one of these – No. 128 – also winds the watch. In general, Breguet’s Sympathiques either set and wind the watch, or set the time and adjust the rate.)
All of the 20 clocks in the series made for Breguet share these technical features, and all are designed to set the watches paired with them every two hours, and setting is accomplished through the use of a pusher co-axial with the crown. The constant force mechanism in the THA-produced series is the blade-type remontoir invented by Journe, and later used in his constant force Tourbillon Souverain wristwatches; the designs are based on two Sympathique clocks originally made for Asprey in the late 1980s – Journe tells an amusing anecdote in which he relates that his first design for John Asprey had a pink dial. This occasioned a bad moment for Journe, as he would later tell WatchesBySjx in April of this year:
“I constructed my first Sympathique in 1987 for John Asprey in London; I planned to create just one clock for John Asprey, so I drew just one design in coral stone,” says François-Paul, “But three days before presenting the project, I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic: ‘What if he doesn’t like pink?’”
The upshot was that Journe presented two options – one with a pink coral dial, and one with a green jade dial – and Asprey decided to buy both. The lion’s share of the considerable work involved in making the series of 20 Sympathiques at THA was largely done by Denis Flageollet and F.P. Journe, with contributions from Pierre-André Grimm and Vianney Halter (according to Journe’s interview).
The Sympathique Louis Varius works in basically the same way as the THA Sympathiques. Instead of a detent escapement, the two SLV clocks use lever escapements, with constant force remontoirs, and like their predecessors, they have eight day power reserves. Like the THA Sympathiques, resetting the minute hand is via a pusher co-axial with the crown.
The winding system is designed to use the crown almost as if it were a screw, and the clock, a screwdriver. The crown has a cutout in it, in the shape of a Louis Vuitton Monogram flower. When the watch is placed in its dock, a matching bit fits inside the cutout, and winds the watch, propelled by the gear train of the clock. The cutout and the bit appear to have been machined in such a way as to ensure a tight fit and clean engagement when the watch is inserted into the clock, without leaving marks or scratches on either the bit or the crown.
The bit is mounted on two spring loaded rods, to allow it to move freely backwards and forwards. Similarly to the THA Sympathiques, the crown has a co-axial pusher (a little difficult to see, as it’s set flush with the recessed inner surface of the flower cut-out) and when it’s pushed inward, a lever inside the watch attached to the crown, changes the position of the minute hand to match that of the clock. Breguet used a system of pawls to adjust the position of the minute hand wheel; the system is concisely described by Revolution’s Cheryl Chia in an article from May of this year.
The only caveat is that the watch must be within ±7 minutes of the correct time for the mechanism to be actuated. As with Breguet’s Sympathiques which set and adjust their watches, the hand-setting mechanism is entirely contained inside the watch, and is activated by the bit in the clock (once every two hours). In the above image, you can see that like the platform for the winding bit, the crown pusher is mounted on a spiral spring to allow it to move freely back and forth.
This is the reason that the Louis Varius is slightly larger than the standard DB25 SV GMT – to accommodate the setting mechanism.
Due to their cost and complexity, as well as the enormous amount of hand-work involved in the engraving, only two LVDB-03 Sympathique Louis Varius clocks are being made. All of the watches in the series, however, are designed with the same technical features and any of the watches are compatible with the two clocks. The clocks add considerably to the cost of the package, though – alone, each watch is € 375,000; both together are more than ten times as expensive, at € 4,000,000.
The watch, of course, has all the features of the standard DB25 SV GMT as well, including the Pare-chute antishock system, as well as De Bethune’s patented white gold and blued titanium balance, and De Bethune’s self-centering balance spring, which has an affix on the outermost final coil of the spring which performs the same function as a Breguet overcoil.
If you are wondering why anyone would go to the incredible amount of trouble you have to go through to make a Sympathique clock and watch, well, you’re in good company; George Daniels wondered the same thing. In The Art of Breguet, he writes … well, about the Sympathiques, he writes quite a bit, but one thing he says (in 1975, when the first edition was published) is this:
“There is more mystique surrounding the sympathiques than any other of Breguet’s products. Relatively few people have seen one and only perhaps half a dozen know exactly what they do or how they work. [I am not sure that number is all that much higher today.] In Watches, written jointly by this author and Cecil Clutton, they are described as ‘Breguet’s most advanced flight of misapplied ingenuity’ and in the context of the history of the development of horology, this description may stand.”
“The sympathique is an ingenious and amusing toy such as only Breguet could conceive. Certainly no one but Breguet could have produced them, for they need the most skilful [sic] workmen to make then and the financial burden would have been considerable. They can hardly be described as useful or necessary, but great artists are not always motivated by such considerations. Sometimes fine work is done just for its own sake or because it contains a challenge undertaken and overcome, or perhaps simply because it is amusing and demonstrates a remarkable talent in full flight of fancy. The sympathique is a jewel of misplaced ingenuity in a forest of scientific horological endeavours, and their very existence is sufficient reason for their manufacture for they never cease to amaze and mystify.”
So say we all.
The LVDB-03 Louis Varius: case, Tambour Taiko in blued titanium; lugs and crown in platinum, 53 components; the case hand polished and heat tempered blue, 45mm x 14.05mm, lug-to-lug 21mm, 20 meter water resistance; sapphire crystals front and back. Dial, 12 hour local time disk; second time zone disk with spherical rose gold and blued steel sphere; central dial in blued titanium with ‘Louis Vuitton’ constellation with 18k white gold pins and gold leaf. Brass blue PVD hour and minute hands; blue PVD date hand with silvered arrow.
Movement, calibere DB2507LV, with titanium balance wheel, DB balance spring, triple Pare-chute antishock system and double self-regulating jeweled mainspring barrel; 404 components, running at 28,800 vph in 40 jewels with five day power reserve. Hours, minutes, date, GMT function, day/night indicator, and sympathique function for winding and setting. 30mm x 10.35mm.
The LVDB-03 Sympathique Louis Varius: clock mounted in gimbal system, titanium case and base with flame blued meteorite marquetry, and adjustable orientation. Not water resistant so don’t use this work of art as a glorified coaster, for heaven’s sake. Dial, AR coated glass, blued and polished titanium central dial with gold leaf starry sky decoration; 5N gold dome, hand engraved with Hercules and other constellations.
Movement, key wound and set caliber DB5006 with lever escapement, remontoir, and double mainspring barrels; 763 components, running in 12 jewels at 2.5hz/18,000 vph. Hours, minutes, sympathique function for winding and setting the minute hand of the watch within a ±7 minute difference from the clock; full winding in 9 to 12 hours depending on state of wind of the watch. Rotating gold engraved disks. 213.8mm x 88.3mm.
Limited editions, 10 watches and two additional watches with paired Sympathique clocks. Prices, €375,000 for the watches and €4,000,000 for the watch with Sympathique clock.